Batty Cybernetics v1.0

Alright, so there have been a lot of Cybernetics Division decks around lately, trying to kill the runner using brain damage. They have had varied success, and in my experience, the problem usually lies with the difficulty of sticking that brain damage to a competent runner who knows what he's dealing with. In other words, they lack a way to really get to a runner who knows how to work around Ryon Knight, Cerebral Overwriter and Edge of World. After all, as soon as they see your ID, they know exactly what your game plan is.

Meet Marcus, a non-dodgeable source of brain damage (if we have the right ICE) that works on any server, and his best friend, Google's Next Invention.

This deck does not go for a shell game and hope for luck like a Jinteki PE deck without Ronin, but rather sets up an inevitability: unless our opponents take brain damage, we score agendas; if they take brain damage, we kill them. Piece of cake.

How do we do that? In short, we smack the Defective Brainchips on the table and then use Marcus in a central server with the Shell Corp to generate ludicrous amounts of money for us, on threat of killing the runner if they try to take it out, and then score agendas using Biotics. All we need is a single Marcus hit while the Chips are on the board and then scoring a single Self-Destruct Chips through Biotic Labor to put the runner in range of a two-Neural kill. If we are lucky enough to draw all three Neurals, we won't even need to score. Game over.

So why not go for Edge of World/Cerebral Overwriter instead of Marcus? Because Marcus can protect centrals as well. Edge of World/Cerebral Overwriter is easily countered by just hammering R&D and HQ, never letting the corp draw a single trap to begin with. If we have Marcus, he can protect the centrals as well.

So what are the weaknesses of the deck, then?

1. The ICE is expensive. It usually works out well though, but you could switch Viktor 2.0 for Enigma or even Quandary if you want more cheap early game ICE. This deck can pretty quickly build a glacier if needed though, given that our Shell Corps are pretty much untouchable, and the fact that we only need to ICE our centrals in most games.

2. Marcus does require a Psi game after all, and it is possible to get really unlucky and miss all three shots. However, if you can find the window to advance a Vitruvius beyond 3 counters, you can get him back, and unless you are close to scoring out, getting those Marcuses back is usually better than scoring the Wotan.

3. Hand size: we will be hoarding Neurals and sometimes Biotics as well, making our hand really full. If you feel that this becomes a problem often, you can switch the Biotics for Archived Memories and score in a remote instead, with more Marcuses to go around.

The only cards I'm a bit unsure of in the deck is the Green Level Clearances. Considering we will have a pretty crowded hand as it is, drawing more is not optimal. We have a few options here. Once we get our Shell Corporation server up, credits are not an issue, so that Green Level Clearance card slot needs to cover for our early-game economy needs. As it stands, Archived Memories is actually a better early-game economy choice than Green Level Clearance, because fetching a Hedge Fund and using it again is better than gaining 2 credits and drawing a card. The Archived Memories also gives us a back-up should we find ourselves needing more Marcuses or Biotics, but then again, then it, too, would be clogging up our hand. More play testing will likely tell which choice is optimal.

I would love to hear your feedback!